Entrepreneurship: The New Educational Technology for Blackmen

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

― Jim Rohn

“Government enriches itself by controlling the minds of its citizenry; therefore, entrepreneurship is a threat because it rejects programming and requires innovation and creativity” – Vaurn James

Well, the School to Prison pipeline is well documented, reported, researched and heavily invested by state governments, teachers unions, politicians, police departments, Black mums (yes…. even, Black mums) and especially, American Corporations like GEO Group & Corrections Corporation of America, who generate billions of dollars to ensure their facilities (Private Prisons) are filled with human capitol that guarantees revenue for them. Not enough male bodies being arrested and incarcerated then, their business model FAILS. Clearly, law abiding individuals are not desired by these “Captains of Industry” because like true “Economic Mercenaries” there is PROFIT in a Free Market Economy that has invested in the projected generational incarceration of men who are at the bottom of the S.E.S Ladder compared to men from other communities. So, from an economic perspective the Black family loses at minimum 50% of its earning potential if, there’s no father in the home and multiple children reared by a single mum who relies on government assistance. So, do we see an opportunity to exploit and profit from this generational mess that began in the 1960s thanks to Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Project?

Business is Business and I am not referring to corporations but, to failing schools, who have multiple problems (poverty, neighborhood violence, female-headed homes, children with poor nutrition, drugs, medical/health issues, pay check-teachers, racist staff members, cultural challenges, etc.,), that most suburban schools encounter infrequently; yet, get paid well, while failing to provide adequate education to prepare young men of colour for the future challenges of life. So, what’s the SOLUTION to the problem of young black male academic under-achievement?

Time to think outside of the box and become innovative and non-traditional. Time to think like a renegade Social Entrepreneur. Yeah, someone who is solution-focused financially, socially and societally. After 50-years and billions of dollars invested in higher education it’s safe to say there’s a problem. The traditional approach of education for many young Blackmen doesn’t work; therefore, new plan needed and to be implemented. Unfortunately, “The aim of public education isn’t to spread enlightenment at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same level, to breed a standard citizenry to put down dissent and originality” (H. L., Mencken). In truth, the goal is to monetize and program the public starting from cradle to grave in real time. Seems J.D Rockefeller, was right when he said, “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”. Indeed, to achieve it you control the way a man thinks then, you control the man. Yep, sounds like the remnants of slavery and Jim Crow; however, schools are the new overseers using programming to insert or encode specific operating system into an apparatus (young black men) to produce a specific outcome (Department of Corrections).

So, for many Blackmen another approach is needed and that’s entrepreneurship because it centers on addressing self-limiting beliefs which for many is the chokehold that prevents them from achieving success. When you are reared in an environment that reinforces a poverty mindset then, remaining in one’s comfort zone ensures a self-imposed restriction on growth both currently and often, generationally. Now, despite many adversities young Blackmen face daily they still retain a hunger for learning, hunger for growing, hunger for progress and hunger to not get satisfied. This hunger despite the deficit in psychology and skill, the science of achievement and art of fulfillment are critical components for entrepreneurial success for young blackmen. It’s about working, developing and implementing the internal qualities of an individual to problem solve, while creating financial independence through innovation which is contrary to traditional education which nourishes a worker mindset versus entrepreneurship that nourishes a business mindset. So, entrepreneurship is a threat to the status-quo but, how you ask? Think about the terms “push” and “pull”. Notice when you’re being pushed to achieve a goal then, success maybe 50-50; however, when you’re being pulled through your passion and you identify with the process then, your success is increased exponentially.

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
― Malcolm X

Contributor,

Vaurn James